Swallows and Amazons. Arthur Ransome

to the masthead.

      “They’re hoisting a flag,” said John.

      The little staff straightened itself at the top of the mast, and the flag, a three-cornered one, blew out in the wind.

      Titty drew a long breath that nearly choked her.

      “It is . . .” she said.

      The flag blowing out in the wind at the masthead of the little boat was black and on it in white were a skull and two crossed bones.

      The four on the island stared at each other.

      Captain John was the first to speak.

      “Roger stops here,” he said. “The mate watches the landing-place. Titty watches the western shore. I watch the harbour. No one will show themselves. It’s quite likely they haven’t seen us. Wait till they’re well away on that tack and then we’ll get to our places. They could see us if we moved now.”

      The Amazon, sailing fast on the port tack, was soon half across the lake.

      “Now,” said John; and the three of them, leaving Roger, slipped down from the look-out place into the camp. Susan hid herself behind some bushes close to the landing-place. Titty crawled through the undergrowth till she could see out over the steep rock that ran along the western side of the island. John hurried through the trees until he came to the harbour. There he found a place from which he could look out without being seen. He unstepped the mast of the Swallow in case it could be seen over the rocks, and then hid himself and waited.

      Titty saw more of what happened than any of the others, and she really saw very little. The Amazon went about once more, and sailed round the southern end of the island. Titty watched her until the trees at that end of the island hid her. John saw her only for a moment as she passed across the opening in the rocks outside the harbour. Then he could not see her any more. Then he heard voices not far away but dared not move for fear of showing himself. Presently he heard the voices further away, near the landing-place. He hurried back through the trees to help Susan. But Susan had seen them as they passed, for a moment only, through the trees. They had not stopped at all. Sailing fast, with the wind with them, they had run through between the island and the mainland, and were already north of the island, sailing straight on towards Houseboat Bay and Darien. Susan and John hurried together to the look-out point, where Roger, his legs kicking with excitement, was lying in the heather watching the Amazon growing smaller and smaller.

      “They hauled down the flag almost as soon as they were clear of the island,” he said.

      “Then they must have hoisted it only because they saw us,” said John.

      Titty joined them.

      “If they were pirates,” she said, “why did the pirate on the houseboat fire at them?”

      “Perhaps he didn’t,” said Susan. “Watch if they run into Houseboat Bay again.”

      “They haven’t got a cannon,” said Roger, “and he has, a beauty. I know it was the pirate on the houseboat who fired.”

      The Amazon did not run into Houseboat Bay. The little boat, with her white sail well out, held on her course, leaving a long line of wake astern of her, as straight as if it had been laid off with ruler.

      “They know how to steer,” said Captain John. One of Swallow’s weak points was that she was inclined to yaw about with a following wind. It was none too easy to leave a wake like that. And, as John could not admit that there might be easier boats to steer than Swallow, he had to give all the credit for that straight line to the sailors of the Amazon.